Olga Ioannou

Background

Olga Ioannou is assistant professor at the faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, with a special interest in architectural engineering education. In fact, Olga holds a PhD in this very topic! Over the years, Olga developed a strong interest in the concept of circularity and how the latter’s systemic character challenges established processes for the production of the built environment, stakeholder relations and societal values towards a circular society. Combining her strong research profile and interest in education, Olga has developed and is currently coordinating several educational initiatives with the aim of integrating circularity in BK curricula: Circularity for Educators and Educators for Circularity.

Towards IDEE

When Olga first heard about IDEE, she immediately felt a strong connection to the theme of ‘Students taking responsibility for their own learning process’. For Olga, being an expert in a certain field does not necessarily make one a good teacher as well. One experience that had a formative impact on Olga’s basic stance towards teaching was when she stood in front of  about 40 students, and she realized that there was no way to tell with what exact takeaway these students would be leaving the room: “It was then that I realized that I did not really control what my students would be getting out of the lecture. Rather, students will take with them those parts that resonate with them, the parts that they can attach to what they already know”. Ever since, Olga has been very interested in learning more about how to empower students to make the most out of their education, and what she can do as a teacher to facilitate this. Olga sees IDEE as a wonderful opportunity to continue this path.

As part of IDEE

“The “Students Taking Responsibility” IDEE research track will collect and systemize pedagogical practices that feed in this direction and study their interrelatedness. We opt to set a framework so that these practices will not only be catalogued but further contextualized for engineering courses and evaluated for their effectiveness. We call this framework, a Pedagogical Pattern Language (PPL).”

Did you know that ...?

• For several years now, Olga keeps a personal blog where she shares thoughts and insights on meaningful excerpts from architectural engineering education resources and much more. Want to have a look yourself? You can find it here.
• In November 2022, Olga co-organized a symposium on Architectural Education in Times of Uncertainty. There is a growing need to prepare students to find their way in highly uncertain times. If you want to have an interesting conversation on the link between the theme of uncertainty and the necessity of both educators and students to take more responsibility, reach out to Olga by sending an email to O.Ioannou@tudelft.nl! 
• Olga has published many works in architectural engineering education. Curious about Olga’s work? Take a look at Olga’s publications here.